Thomas Aquinas (1224 - 1272)

Thomas
Aquinas (Tomasso d'Aquino) was born to an aristocratic
family in a castle four miles north of Aquino in southern Italy.

When
he was five years old Thomas was sent to school with the monks at Monte
Cassino. It didn't take long for it to become apparent that he
possessed a sharp, curious intellect and a religious temperament.

Nine years later he was sent to study at
the University of Naples. The university had become an important center
for the new knowledge that was beginning to spread in the medieval
world and where Classical learning was being rediscovered.

There,
Thomas was introduced to Aristotle's treatises on logic and he attended
lectures on natural philosophy (science).

At the same time he found himself drawn to
the Dominicans, a monastic order founded twenty-five years earlier by
St. Dominic. To his family's dismay, he joined the order and gave up
his studies at Naples. He set off to Paris, known then as the greatest
center of learning in Christendom, to study with Albertus Magnus, one
of the finest scholars of the time and known for his commentaries on Aristotle.

Although Thomas Aquinas was a professional
theologian, his writing and works are philosophical in nature. He is
well known for reconciling the philosophy of Aristotle with Christian
doctrine. In doing so, he aimed at establishing a harmonious
coexistence between faith and reason and pointing out that the tenants
of faith do not contradict the conclusions of philosophy.

His extraordinarily, large volume of
writing, a testament to his intellectual capability, resulted in many
achievements, including the 'Five Ways' or proofs of the existence of
God (in his Summa Theologiae).

In the first of his
proofs, Aquinas says that the existence of God can be proved by
considering the concept of motion. In studying the works of Aristotle
he concluded from common observation that an object in motion, such as
the planets or a rolling stone, is put in motion by some other object
or force. From this, he concluded, there must have been an unmoved
mover who first put things in motion. That would be God.

The second proof deals
with the issue of existence and cause. Again, according to Aquinas,
common sense observation tells us that no object creates itself and
that all causes always operate in a series to which there must be a
first cause of the series, or there could not be a series at all. His
conclusion is that there is a thing, which causes itself, and that is
God.

In the third proof,
Aquinas notes that we observe that things in the world come to be and
pass away. However, not everything can be like this for then there
would have been a time when nothing existed. If that were true then
nothing could ever have come into being, since something cannot come
from nothing. Therefore something must always have existed and that
would be God.

These first three proofs of Aquinas have
often been called variations of the Cosmological Argument (an attempt
to prove that
God exists by appealing to the principle that all things
have causes).

In the fourth proof
Aquinas offers a version of the Ontological Argument (the proof that
God exists because our conception of Him exists). A thing may have
varying degrees of a quality e.g. more or less hot, good, handsome,
etc. These varying degrees of quality are caused by something that
contains the most or perfect amount of that quality. That which is the
source of, and contains most perfect of all qualities, is God.

Finally in the fifth proof,
Aquinas refers to Aristotle's notion of purpose in that all things aim
towards some ultimate goal or end. The order and design found in nature
suggests a highest Being, God, at the Source.

Thomas Aquinas was the quintessential
master of Scholastic philosophy. His influence has been vast not only
in Western theology, but in Western philosophy. Two of his most famous
works are the Summa Theologiae
and the Summa Contra Gentiles.
His prolific writings also include considerations on human nature,
government, law, ethics, metaphysics and epistemology, among other
subjects.